I want to like this story but I feel like I did way back when reading refiners fire were every other day Harry Potter keep getting put in the hospital for 4 week crippled and or in a comma.

we've lost three fighters."
"We've lost another fighter!
?
These are literally the most pointless things ever made by the federation, if they are so weak why not just use shuttles or a few runabouts?
And how many crew are still alive at this point like 200? They are dropping like red shirts.

You had three fighters die to Batarian pirates? They seem basically worthless even in the ME universe where they should be pretty kick ass. Given as how they are down to 250ish crew it seems like a bad idea to send people out in these suicide coffins.

Just for reference, the fastest FTL speed mentioned in Mass Effect is 30 light-years a day (equal to around Warp 9.96 or 10,599 times the speed of light). An Intrepid-class starship, on the other hand, has a maximum cruising speed of Warp 9.975, or just over 36 light-years a day.

Interesting change. The Reaper main 'beam' is a slurry of heavy metals fired at greater than 20% the speed of light. That would do more damage than a particle beam since the protheans based said particle accelerator on reaper base Mass Effect technology. But it works for your story.

Guest chapter 7 . 8/20/2016

Mass Effect tech is extremely stable. If you played ME2 Mordin puts it correctly with the needing a problem to push onward that is why the other races fear humanity they see a problem with the status quo and set out to change it.

Absolutely fantastic story! Great background, great characters (with many interesting flaws to make them come alive) and a well done merging of the two universes.
I hope you find the time and inspiration to continue this jewel.

So mainly what's bugging me so far is that after getting the warp core back they should have been able to detect the Geth if they were still nearby. Since you specifically stated the Geth with the prisoners didn't go for the relay they'd be close enough for the V to a read.
ME is frankly shite, you've massively buffed it here for some reason. An ME ship can't really do interstellar on its own. It runs out of fuel extremely quickly at FTL.
So why is the V wasting time hobnobbing instead of running down their wayward crew? I think I know what you plan to do with them and frankly it does not amuse me.
The Reapers are already exceedingly OP. They don't need help to be worse.
You can have a more powerful character/s without having to buff the enemy as well. When you do it just feels like your story came down with DBZ power creep.

Actually, Federation (and Earth) law does explicitly allow prenatal genetic therapy to repair genetic disease. It's one of the few exemptions to Earth's ban on genetic engineering, but it is present. Postnatal gene therapy, and genetic augmentation are the critical lines; you can't have a designer baby, and you can't have a baby boosted above baseline.

Who knows how long it could take, but in a way the Vanguard's goal besides surviving, is an attempt to create their own version of the Federation. Enlisting from the best of the best, both in skills and moral to join their ranks, maybe even establish a colony maybe in a Dead Zone, an area of space that is beyond the normal means of ME engines. It would allow the colony to grow without threat of possible dangers from the rest of the galaxy.